Declaration of Love
by tieukhanh
Summary: Thatch finds a flower bouquet at the front door, sent by a mysterious A to Marco. Curious, he looked up the flowers' meanings. You have disappointed me.


Thatch gets home after a long day of work and notices a delivery man standing at the front door. The man gives him an awkwardly forced smile before handing over a medium-sized flower bouquet. Signing the proof of delivery, Thatch brings the bouquet inside, wandering who could have send it to his place. It's made of from five different type of flowers, each has one or two branches only, bound together by a gold ribbon and they stand out in their own way instead of being a harmonious whole. Thatch knows free-flowing is a style in flower arrangement but the flowers look like they were picked randomly and the florist's job is simply wrapping them up. On the side of the bouquet stuck a piece of paper says:

_Marco, this is my answer._

_A._

Thatch makes an amusing snort. He's seen Marco giggling at his phone like a teenager for weeks and undoubtedly this A person is the reason for that. As far as Thatch can remember, Marco has never showed any interest in exchanging flowers. This could be A's thing and his brother decides to play along. Hell, Marco will love to play along. He's a playful nerd that's really into code and hidden messages – the winner of every treasure hunt game they joined in their younger years.

Thatch takes the Dictionary of Flowers off the shelf. Of course he cannot read Marco's letter, that's extremely rude and inappropriate. However, since the message was written in flowers, no one can blame him if he look up for their meaning right?

He knows the first flower: foxgloves. When they were kids Pops usually took them back to his hometown, a lovely village in a mountainous area. Right outside the village is a field of foxgloves where they often played hide-and-seek. Thatch liked shoving his finger in this tubular flowers and felt the velvety petals pampered his fingertip.  
The flowers in his memory were as white as snow while this flowers are purple tints.

"A-B-C- ah- F. Foxgloves. Let's see… Purple foxgloves!"

_Purple foxglove: Insincerity._

Thatch dumbfounds for one second and looks it up again to make sure he had read it right. Insincerity, repeats the words, and there's even a side note that foxgloves are poisonous and can be fatal. Confused, Thatch puts the foxgloves aside and reaches for the orange lilies. The petals are cooler than he expected and they are so thin the light can shine through them, bestowing an unearthly glow.

_Orange lily: Hatred._

One can be a mistake, but two on a row?

Thatch picks up another flower, a bright and scarlet umbel. It takes Thatch a while to find this's one name and its meaning renders him in silence.

_Red geranium: Stupidity._

He immediately looks up for the fourth one, a delicate cluster of creamy-white flowers. From the pistil emerges a sweet, almost sickly, fragrance.

_Meadowsweet: Uselessness._

Thatch bangs his fist on the table, his face is red with suppressed anger. He hopes this A person isn't Marco's secret crush because if they're, they're rejecting Marco in the cruelest way and his brother deserves none of that bullshit. The fifth flower, golden as sunshine, blooms with determined brilliance, yet Thatch doubts it carries a nice message. Grimly stares at the bouquet, he decides to get rid of it before Marco gets home. Unfortunately, the door swings open before he can do anything. Thatch has no other choice but to hide the flowers behind his back.

"Ma-Marco! Welcome back. You're back so soon?"

"I'm fifteen minutes later than usual." Marco raises his eyebrows. "Did you piss someone off? Because yellow carnation is pretty harsh."

Before Thatch can ask what was that supposed to mean, Marco explains.

"The flower you've been holding is yellow carnation, meaning '_You have disappointed me'_. What did you do this time?"

If Marco asked that fifteen minutes ago, Thatch would be offended, but right now his mind is too busy to come up with a reliable explain.

"I- I got it from Sanji! Do you remember him, the new apprentice at my restaurant? That cocky brat has been picking on me for weeks and he gave me this this afternoon as a peace offering. Damn that kid? Disappointed in me? I though he finally learns some manners."

"I also know he's on vacation with his friends." Marco makes a face, "His sister happens to be my mentee, remember?"

Thatch bites his tongue, cursing his own IQ. His intelligence always fails when he needs to cover up something.

"It's fine if you don't want to say it, as long as you can keep yourself away from trouble." Marco changes the subject and Thatch sighs in relief. "By the way, do you see any gift when you get home? I believe there's a package for me today."

And Thatch tenses again. He prepares to lie again but Marco's eyes are focusing on the floor. Then Marco bends down. To Thatch's horror, right next to Marco's feet is a small piece of paper - the message that goes with the bouquet.

Marco picks it up and his eyes go wide.

"It's Ace who sent this?"

So A is short for Ace then, Thatch swallows hard. He unconsciously steps back as Marco darts forward, serious.

"What else did he send me? Only yellow carnation?"

Gosh this is too much to say the truth.

"No, also these too."

Thatch reveals the bouquet, nervously searching for any sign of that Marco isn't alright. There's one moment where Marco's face washes blank with confusion before his mouth forms a rigid grimace. The expression clenches Thatch's heart. He cannot bare to see Marco or any of his brothers get hurt. Sighing, he reaches out trying to offer comfort, but his hand stops when Marco's eyes suddenly sparks with joy. A grin creeps onto his face, soon stretches from one side to the other - a huge smile that shows every single tooth.  
Marco hurriedly grabs his jacket and beams.

"I'm be back tomorrow! No need to wait for me!"

And he's gone, leaving a clueless Thatch behind.

.

.

.

Marco returns the next evening with a big groceries bag, looking like the happiest man being alive. The smile that cracks his face is something Thatch hasn't seen since for a while. Sure Marco smiles a lot but this isn't the friendly smile that he puts on every day. It's much more than that, so sincere and pure as if somehow the sun has toppled down from the sky and makes a home right there in his heart. Thatch can see how it comes from deep inside to light Marco's eyes with radiance before spreading into every part of him.

It bugs Thatch's confusion more than ever.

"Hey, Marco?"

"Uh huh?"

"How's you and A? Have you two resolved it already?"

"Yes," Marco smiles radiantly. "We gets along pretty well."

"Good then," Thatch feels happy for his brother, still a part of him cannot forgive A for the mean message yet, "I was so worried about the bouquet yesterday."

"I was startled at first too. You don't receive a "fuck you" in flowers every day."

"Pardon?" Thatch squints his eyes. This is it, the key to unlock his confusion.

"Foxglove for insincerity, orange lilies for hatred, geraniums for stupidity, meadowsweet for uselessness and yellow carnations for 'you have disappointed me'. It's how to say 'fuck you' in flowers? Full of loathing eh?"

"Then why do you look so smug? Aren't you supposed to feel—"

Marco gives him a piece of paper which is the message from yesterday. Turn out there's a second note on the other side.

_And I mean it literally._

"We came across a flower exhibition last week and kind of joked about… inappropriate messages in flowers." Marco grins goofily, "I asked if there's anything he wanted to say to me. And there's that, the bouquet-"

"Oh my god! Oh my god!" Thatch groans and puts his face in his hands as Marco gives a loud and silly laugh. "No, don't! Don't say a word! I don't need to know any detail about you or that A or what you two did yesterday." He stayed up all night worrying and turns out it's just these two being horny? "Do we still have beer in the fridge? No, rum is better, because I feel like drinking myself to sleep right now!"

"Serve yourself." Marco pulls two bottles of wine out of his groceries bag, one rum and one red wine, "By the way, I invited Ace to come here this Saturday. You two will definitely get along."  
-

* * *

Hi, it's me again and my nonsensical plot.

All credit about the "fuck you" bouquet goes to this tumblr post:  
post/145960730310/flower-shop-au

It's just so hilarious I cannot help myself (^▽^)


End file.
